Varadkar Accused of Throwing Former NAGP Chairman ‘Under Bus’

TÁNAISTE LEO VARADKAR has been accused of throwing the former head of the National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP) “under the bus” by Sinn Féin.

The exchange of a negotiated agreement between the Government and the Irish Medical Organization (IMO) with a rival group of GPs last year was raised again today by Pearse Doherty of Sinn Féin during the Leaders’ Questions.

The Donegal TD said that Dr. Maitiú Ó Tuathail was thrown under the bus by Varadkar, and then “reversed it”, referring to reports that Varadkar told his parliamentary party meeting last night that people should be careful with whom. they are his friends.

Ó Tuathail had the full right to request the IMO document, Doherty said, stating that he has done nothing wrong. However, Varadkar shouldn’t have provided it, Doherty said.

Varadkar said he has already accepted responsibility for the matter.

Earlier this week, Varadkar apologized in the Dáil for “errors of judgment” after he was questioned about what prompted him to send the document to NAGP’s Dr. Ó Tuathail, someone Varadkar said is a friend but “not a close friend”.

Today, Sinn Féins Pearse Doherty said that he did not accept the Tánaiste’s claim that the talks had concluded and that only minor changes were made to the IMO agreement after it was shared with Dr. Ó Tuathail.

Doherty says he counted 35 changes to the document. The Tanaiste said it could not attest to that because it did not know what document Doherty was working on and does not have a copy of the agreement sent to Dr. Ó Tuathail.

Varadkar said he was in contact with Dr. Ó Tuathail after the story became known, as it had been claimed on social media that he had shared the document on April 2, 2019, something he said he did not believe was correct. .

He said he did not have details of his correspondence related to the leaked GP contract documents because he does not save his text messages.

Varadkar told the Dail that the reason he no longer has the 2019 WhatsApp messages between him and Dr. Ó Tuathail was because he does not usually keep his text messages.

“I don’t save text messages as standard,” he said.

He said that he had to contact Dr. Ó Tuathail to establish that they had been in contact about the contract between April 11 and 16, 2019.

The Tanaiste said that he has a personal email address and that he forwards any correspondence that may constitute a public record to his official email account.

Doherty said the messages he cannot provide now should be considered official.